Chebukati explains why Uhuru had more votes than the declared voter turn out

The Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission was taken to task by a section of media to explain how it was that President Uhuru Kenyatta garnered more votes than the number of people who turned out to vote in the October 26 repeat election.

Speaking on Saturday, October 28, IEBC Chairman Wafula Chebukati had to explain a tweet he sent out indicating 6.5 million people had voted while independent tallies found that Uhuru had garnered more than 7.3 million votes.

These tallies were tabulated from Forms 34 A downloaded from the IEBC portal.

“We were receiving the forms as they were coming in and tabulating the figures as the forms were coming in. I can give you the exact figure as at that time because I don’t have the data with me now. There is a team working on it. Based on the forms we’ve received, we’re going to give you the exact figure of the total turn out,

“At the time of the figure of 6.5 million voters went out, the forms were much less than the 37,000 we currently have,” said Chebukati as quoted on KTN.

By midday, the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission had verified 237 Forms 34B from the constituencies, with a total of 7,063,841 voters, which is 43. 39 per cent voter turnout.

The IEBC on Saturday asked Kenyans to wait for all the results to be verified for the turnout to be known.

At midday, President Uhuru Kenyatta, with 98.32 per cent of the vote, polled 6,945,181 votes.

Nasa leader Raila Odinga, who withdrew from the poll and demanded a new one 90 days after fresh elections, had 65,598 votes – 0.93 per cent.